Yet another Character Chat

A pale blur zooms right where Dew's head was only moments ago, landing a few feet away from Runner. It was a walking corpse, with skin so pale and lifeless it looked like wet paper. Every bone could be seen in its shirtless torso, and as it barred it's teeth, a mental image flashed through everyone's head. If you mummified, starved, murdered with an ax, and poured a bottle of acid over Runner, and squinted really hard, he would look like the shadow. He stared at it with wide hazel eyes, studying it as his anger slowly grow. "What did he use? A hair? A used band-aid?"
The shadow right back at Runner, smiling nastily. "A coffee cup in the trash." Its voice was akin to one of a 90 year smoker.

Stardew and Trouble glance at each other, and Stardew shifts to a crouching position. The two seem to hold a brief conference made entirely out of different patterns of body movements, and then Stardew stands slowly, still holding the pistol.

The two were at a standstill, Runner hefting the pan over his right shoulder while he waited for the other two, who were obviously much better fighters, to attack while it was distracted.

Trouble slowly stands as well. Stardew readies to fire as Trouble deliberately takes his blade and runs his hand along its surface. Blue blood stains the silver.

Hunger's eyes snapped to Trouble, gazing lustfully at the warm blood. "GIVE IT TO ME!" He shouted, lunging at a blinding speed.

Stardew reacts, firing a silver bullet at the shadow's head as Trouble artfully dodges the shadow.

It was knocked to the ground, but recovered easily, switching his attention to Stardew now. Suddenly, Runner stepped forward, smashing the pan on the back of the shadow's head with a loud DONG!!! It howled in pain, covering its ears with thin, anemic hands.

With a muttered word Trouble's hands glow to life with a pale white-gold fire. Stardew shouts something in their mother tongue and Trouble flips forward, grabbing the shadow's shoulders and pushing it down, flame rushing from his hands onto the shadow.

It squirmed with incredible strength, throwing the hands off of his and sprinting away, leaving the smell of burnt skin and dirt. Runner chewed on his bottom lip as he watched it run.

Trouble sighed and shook off his hands, the flame disappearing as he did so.
"Clearly you can't take it down like a vampire. Good thing the Cazimirs don't have anything like that."
Stardew sighs and replaces her pistol in her coat. "Silver's clearly not that effective. Does holy water or something else like that work?" she asked Runner.

"The only way to truly stop it is to kill its owner. The problem is that whoever does own it used my DNA instead of theirs, making it damn near impossible to trace."

"Surely you must have suspects," Stardew said. "Someone who hates you enough to go to such lengths."

"The only people I see with regularity are Cinthia and Tessie. Neither of them would betray me." His eyes dared them to disagree.

Stardew raised her hands up. "I was only asking." She addressed a brief question to Trouble in their language, and he nodded and went to pick up his still-bloody sword.
"So I guess you've been looking around, so on, so forth. Don't take this the wrong way, this is just the first time you've mentioned them, but who are Cinthia and Tessie?"

Cinthia and Tessie are companions. Cinthia's almost like a big sister, and Tessie…well, I'm sure you can guess what I mean by friendly. Both of them have immense power and skill and make their living as mercenaries."

"Sounds like my kind of people," Stardew said. "Are they fully human, or half human, or what?"

"I'm not sure about Cinthia, but Tessie has a strange mix of a god, a dragon, and a human in her."

"Was that planned or did a god and a dragon or a god and a human or a human or a dragon just kind of get together?" Stardew asked as Trouble returned, his blade now clean.
"Foxglove's just up ahead," he told her.

"I have no clue. It's honestly not a line of questions I'd like to pursue."

Stardew laughed. "That probably sounded odd," she said. "Forgive me. My lineage was carefully structured so that I and my kind would be born – well – carved with the greatest amount of power with the fewest drawbacks, and I forget that chance plays into the game."
She turned to Trouble. "All right, does he have the stuff?"
He nodded.

"Do I 'have the stuff?'" He repeated, raising his eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

(No need to apologize! Happy to see you here!) He turned his head, squinting at them. "You two have something bad following you. It's resonating with these two." He gestured towards the faeries. "Cursed, right? Maybe…parent's?"

He glanced over at the elves, and back to the girls. "I won't speak for them, but I'm Runner."

"And I'm Alice" she said coming out of the dark, cold night. "I heard something about 'humans' and 'curses' and that just don't add up my friend"

He studied the girl for a moment. "Royal. In the literal sense. In your blood, I mean. You have a beast, I'm guessing?"

Alice just look at him for a brief moment. Somewhat shocked, "Yes, in fact. I do."

"That isn't all, though. Something else is there two, resigned. Learned. Something raw that's been molded into what it is now." He rubbed his temple. "Something with….a flame?"

She scratched the back of her head and smiled awkwardly "oh yeah. anyone in Dvorjak knows that i've mastered Jedoku's flame," she said "I use it in every tournament. It's kinda my trump card."